December 5th to 9th, 2011
Here’s the scoop on spending five days in the Esplanade Range with with Eric Hjorleifson, guide Russel Lybarger, and the guys from the Canmore CAFE.
The Esplanades had received a little snow before we arrived and the total snowpack had settled out to about 160cm… Not too shabby for the early season. Good stability and visibility allowed us to ski some of the steeper pitches up to 50 degrees and some big slide paths like Krankenstein, Basic Instinct, and Hogzilla. The skiing was awesome, so much so that I’ve got almost no pictures of anyone actually skiing except for this alpine wind scour.
Every day Russ lead us to more vert than my legs could handle. I think his endless library of “Little Johnny” jokes is all that kept us going all day, squeezing out laps until dusk. By the end of the trip I think we had put a track down just about everything in sight and a lot of the stuff that was out of sight.
Hjorleifson’s enthusiasm for skiing is infectious. Whether we were carcass tossing or doing easy turns on gentle meadow slopes, he was always stoked on what we were doing and happy to offer a pointer or two for those of us that are mere mortals.
Sunrise Lodge was our home for four nights. The fire was always roaring, food and drinks were always on the table. We were definitely pampered, our chef Isaac prepared none stop delicious multi course meals for us, and kept the coffee flowing for us to refuel. Adding to the relaxation was the smoking hot sauna that the custodians always had fired up when we got back in the evenings.
Good living…
